A Lot in Common
by Light-Eco-Sage
Summary: While hunting down Saren, Commander John Shepard and his team run into someone unexpected: the Commander's younger sister. How will two Shepards impact the course of the series? FemShep and Garrus romance.
1. Feros

**A Lot in Common**

**By: Light-Eco-Sage**

**Rated: Mature for sexual content (FemShep/Garrus), language, and violence.**

**Summary: During the hunt for Saren, the crew of the **_**Normandy**_** runs across an unexpected person: the younger sister of Commander John Shepard! How will another Shepard affect the course of the series?**

**Disclaimer: **_**Mass Effect**_** is owned by Bioware.**

**LES: Yes, a sibling story. But I've never read one that was finished before. Hopefully I'll be able to do it, because I have it planned to the ending. Commander John Shepard is a paragon, through and through. Athena Shepard is a paragade. Yes, Athena is the name of my renegon Shepard, but I switched the names. My paragade Shepard was named after me… Ashley… before I knew that there was a squad mate named Ashley in the game. So the name is getting switched over.**

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**PART I: SOVEREIGN  
**

**Chapter I: Feros**

"Officer Vakarian and Tali'Zorah, report to the air lock." The voice of Commander John Shepard came over the intercom, drawing Garrus Vakarian away from his repairs of the Mako ground vehicle. The Mako was as sturdy as vehicles came, but the Commander always seemed to bring it back in less-than-stellar condition. Most of his days were spent crawling around underneath the carriage of the vehicle, finding new and creative ways to repair the underside after the Commander had taken the vehicle up a mountain and off a cliff without using the thrusters… again.

Garrus pulled himself out from under the vehicle with a sort of grace that should not have been possible for anyone who was fully armored, let alone a turian who carried natural plating on their bodies. But Garrus practically lived in his armor, like most turians, and was more than used to moving in it.

He caught sight of the young quarian, Tali'Zorah, and walked over to join her as they made their way to the elevator to take them up to the main level of the _Normandy_. Garrus did his best to ignore the sour look that they got from Ashley as they left. Garrus was not the only one who had noticed that the two Alliance soldiers on their squad, Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams, were going out on missions less and less since the Commander had picked up himself, Tali, and Wrex on the Citadel.

Not that it was Garrus' or anyone's place to make judgments. The Commander had the right as the C.O. of this mission to take whoever he wanted groundside.

"We're in orbit around Feros, right?" Tali asked.

Garrus nodded, mentally reviewing the information that had been given to them by the former Captain Anderson. "There is a very small colony on Feros, but most of the colony is made up of ExoGeni researchers. As far as the reports say, the geth are attacking there in force."

"Do you think that we'll find Saren there?" Tali asked.

Garrus shrugged. "I don't know. But I damn sure hope so."

_Saren_. The whole reason for this mission. Saren was a turian Spectre, one of the best of the militant hand of the Council. Spectres typically did the Council's bidding, elite operatives with the power to get away with pretty much anything. Some were violent and some were diplomatic, but all got the job done. Saren was one of the violent ones, but did his job well. But even with his violent tendencies, the Council never suspected that he would turn against them: gunning another Spectre down from behind and using the synthetic geth to attack a human colony.

Garrus had been a member of Citadel Security, or C-Sec, at the time and assigned the task of finding any evidence of Saren's wrong-doings. But Saren's rank as a Spectre had made this absolutely impossible. Everything that Saren touched automatically became Spectre-level classified. And C-Sec? Well, there was only so much that a cop could do against special agent authorization.

That was how Garrus had met Commander Shepard the first time, the human having walked in on him arguing with his boss, begging for more time to complete his investigation. It had been mostly Commander Shepard's word regarding Saren's wrong-doings, and Garrus had studied his file during his investigation.

Commander John Shepard had been born about three years before what the humans called the First Contact War, which Garrus knew as the Relay 314 Incident. He had been born into a military family and had spent most of his childhood growing up on different Alliance ships. Following his family's footsteps, he had joined the military as soon as he attained the proper age and quickly rose in respect among his peers and superiors. It was during his first posting, on Elysium, that he truly distinguished himself. Batarian pirates had attacked in force, and his unit had been completely wiped out. But John Shepard had rallied the civilians and held off the batarian forces off single-handedly. For this, he was awarded the Star of Terra, the highest honor that the Alliance bestowed on its soldiers and admittance into the Alliance's 'N' training. The N Academy was a special Alliance facility built for the training of Alliance Special Forces. The ranks went from N1, the lowest but still filled with prestige; to N7, the highest and most respected rank. Commander John Shepard achieved the fabled N7 ranking.

The mission to Eden Prime, as far as he could tell from the files, was both a test run for the _Normandy_, the advanced Alliance warship that had been a joint project between humans and turians, but also a Spectre evaluation mission. The Human Alliance wanted a human Spectre, and were pushing heavily for Commander John Shepard to represent their race in the elite special forces. It had ended in failure. The Prothean Beacon that they were sent to pick up was destroyed, and the Spectre Nihlus was killed by Saren.

Garrus knew the rest of the story, because he witnessed it himself. He and Commander Shepard had met up again following a lead through a small medical clinic on the Citadel, and Garrus had joined up with him to find a quarian who might have proof that Saren brought the geth to Eden Prime.

They picked up the krogan bounty-hunter, Urdnot Wrex, much to Garrus' disappointment, and then went after the quarian. They had reached Tali in time and she did, indeed, have proof of Saren's treason and more. The Council dismissed all talk of Reapers, but Garrus was just glad to see that they did accept the important part: that Saren was responsible for Eden Prime. They had stripped Saren of his Spectre rank and made Commander Shepard a Spectre, giving him the charge to hunt down Saren and bring him to justice.

Commander Shepard had accepted the mission, but Garrus knew that he was still very concerned about the Reapers from the recording. In truth, Garrus was still very skeptical about the Reapers, and sided with the Council in this matter. But he was wise enough, and turian enough, to not voice such thoughts out loud. Making Saren a priority or the Reapers… both led to Saren, and that's who he wanted to put a bullet through.

The elevator made its way up to the middle of the ship, and Garrus and Tali stepped off, took a flight of stairs to the CIC of the _Normandy_, and from there found their way toward the forward airlock.

They found Commander John Shepard waiting for them. "Tali, Garrus, are you ready for this? We know that the geth are here in force, so we need to be prepared for plenty of fighting.

"Ready, Commander." Both Garrus and Tali replied.

"Get ready to hack, Tali, and Garrus… just do what you do best." The Commander said with a small smirk. Garrus nodded. They both knew that Garrus was a sniper, and a very good one at that. In fact, on several occasions he had called Garrus the second best sniper that he'd ever seen. When questioned, he refused to reveal who the best sniper he knew was.

Garrus pulled out his trusty rifle, giving the gun a quick double-check to make sure that it was in perfect condition even though he had cleaned and assembled it that very morning. As usual, it was in perfect working order. Tali, likewise, checked her shotgun and her omnitool.

"Everyone set? Let's go." Commander Shepard said as he pressed the button that would open the outer air lock and allow them to disembark.

* * *

As Garrus expected, Feros started out as the sort of typical mission that he'd come to expect from working with Commander Shepard. The geth really were there in force and, while there was no sign that Saren was there personally, it became clear that there was something with this colony that he wanted. Garrus just couldn't imagine what a nearly failed colony would have of interest to him. The leader of the Zhu's Hope colony told Commander Shepard that the rest of their colony was still at the ExoGeni building that was some ways away. He had asked the Commander to go see if there were any survivors who might know the reason for the attack and to save as many people as possible.

Commander Shepard had immediately agreed and then asked for directions to the building in question. Garrus knew that Spectres usually came in two varieties: ruthless and diplomatic, and Commander Shepard fell squarely into the second category. He did the job and saved as many lives as possible doing it.

To Garrus' fear and relief, they were to take an unused Mako across the Prothean Skyway, but at least it was their Mako, so Garrus wouldn't be stuck repairing it after Commander Shepard was done with it. The Commander took the wheel and Garrus took the guns, while Tali kept an eye on the vehicle's shields and armor integrity.

As the Zhu's Hope colonists promised, it was a straight shot to the ExoGeni building, albeit a straight shot through dozens of geth troops. They pulled into the building, and the Commander jumped out of the Mako, followed closely by Garrus and Tali. They were about to go into a small underground bunker that had been highlighted on their map as a prime place for the researchers to set up a defensible position when they suddenly found themselves under gun fire.

Shepard, Tali, and Garrus jumped for the cover provided by the door, and the Commander peeked around the corner, his hand held up behind him in the universal military signal of 'stop'. "Friendlies." He whispered to the others. And then, louder, so that the people in the room could hear, he called. "My name is Commander John Shepard! I'm here to get you out of here!"

And then, from within the room, a female voice called out in surprise. "John?"

When the Commander heard the voice he froze for a second and then walked out of cover. Garrus gasped in shock and tried to pull him back. Friendlies or not, there were clearly scared civilians in there who would shoot at anything that moved. But he walked into the bunker without fear, and no shots were fired. Garrus and Tali glanced at each other and then followed their commander down into the bunker.

There was nothing blocking the door, but that was okay because it was the only point of entry into the room and could be used to bottleneck the enemy, setting up a clear kill zone. There was a clear line drawn between researchers and security personnel. The researchers held their hand guns and pistols like they'd never touched a gun before in their lives. But the security teams all carried sub-machine guns and rifles. A young woman, clearly working beneath her station, judging from the N5 marking on her armor, and clearly the leader of the security teams, collapsed her rifle and holstered it on her back.

She had vibrant red hair that was cut short compared to most of the human females that he had seem before and green eyes. "John? What the hell are you doing here?" She asked again.

Garrus and Tali stared at each other in shock. They'd never heard anyone call the Commander by his first name before. On missions, it was always 'Commander', and on the _Normandy_, sometimes, it was 'Shepard', but never John.

"I think I'm the one who should be asking you that, Athena." The Commander walked over to her and pulled her into a hug.

_Maybe she's his mate._ Garrus thought to himself. His reports said nothing about the Commander having a mate, or a wife, as humans called it. But, then again, it had been lacking in the personal details.

They pulled apart. "The Alliance sent me here about a week ago." Athena said. "The ship I was on was pretty close when we heard that this planet was being attacked by geth, so we got diverted here. But they are here in force, and I've got a lot of civilians to protect… too many to get them safely back to the colony. Then the Alliance called and said that they were sending back up. So… I guess that you are it, huh?" She turned her attention to the turian and quarian behind him. "By the way, I heard about you being made a Spectre. Congratulations. You know, of course, that if it were not the for the Blitz, it could have just as easily been me."

"I don't doubt it." The Commander laughed, and then he turned his attention to his team. "Oh, sorry… introductions. Athena, this is Officer Garrus Vakarian and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"Hello." Athena said with crisp politeness.

"Nice to meet you." Tali said.

"Commander Shepard, you've never told any of us that you had a mate." Garrus said.

To Garrus' shock, both of the humans suddenly turned bright red. At first, he thought that they had suddenly fallen ill, but then he remembered the human tendency to blush when embarrassed. He had seen it before, but never this pronounced.

"Well, uh… that's because she's not my 'mate'." The Commander said.

"Oh! I apologize, Commander! I didn't mean to assume…" Garrus began hurriedly.

"Well, you did… and now that's going to be in my nightmares for weeks." Athena sighed. "Well, since you are obviously so interested, I'm not John's mate and don't ever plan to be his mate. Not just because it's against Alliance law…"

"Not to mention highly disturbing." The Commander commented.

Athena nodded. "I'm the Commander's sister, Athena Shepard. Nice to meet you."

"Sister?!" Both Garrus and Tali gasped in shock.

Commander Shepard nodded. "Yes, Athena is my younger sister. She joined the Alliance as well, right after I did. I guess you could say that the only reason she's not as well known as I am is because I had the 'luck' of being sent to Elysium and she didn't."

"Not to mention that I'm an Infiltrator by training." Athena commented. "It's damned hard to gain renown when people don't even see you coming."

"A sniper?" Garrus asked. Now he suddenly felt like he knew who the best sniper was in the Commander's opinion.

"Good lord… snipers." Commander Shepard sighed. "You two can compare the size of your rifles later. For now, we need to take care of this geth problem." Garrus couldn't blush the same way that a human could, but the signs were there for those who knew how to read them: the slight blue tone to the flesh of his neck, and his mandibles held tight to his face.

"It might be a tough fight, even for a Spectre." Athena said. "I'd go with you to help, but these people really need me more here."

"I understand." John said. "Just give me as much information as you can about the building."

Athena quickly gave her brother all the information she knew about the building and what it was doing. She didn't know everything, because the representative of ExoGeni refused to answer any of her questions. She hinted heavily that he could put a little Spectre authority pressure on him, and he promised to have a talk to the representative.

As the Commander and his ground team turned away to make their way into the building above, Athena Shepard called out. "Oh, and Officer Vakarian, right?"

"Yes, ma'am?" Garrus snapped around. He wasn't sure about her rank, but it couldn't hurt to be polite to the Commander's sister.

"Don't forget that we've got to compare our rifles later." She said with a bit of a smile.

Garrus stared at her for a few seconds and then turned away, his mind racing. There was no way that a human could know that those were the sort of words that a turian female would say to a male when she wanted to instigate sex. There was just no way she could know. Perhaps she just really wanted to compare the size of their guns.

Yeah, that had to be it…

* * *

**LES: As of this point, Garrus is right. Athena Shepard doesn't know about the turian-related innuendo regarding guns. She just has a professional interest in him as another sniper. I'm trying to keep this relationship as close as possible to the actual Garrus/FemShep relationship: friends, friends with benefits, and lovers.**


	2. A New Squad Member

**LES: When it comes to the in-game conversation, I'm definitely not going for 'word for word' because I've read many fics like that. After reading the same dialogue over and over and over, it gets a little boring. So my purpose is to hit the major points of the conversation and move on. You'll notice that these in-game conversations rarely play out as actual conversations in this story. The majority of the dialogue will come from new stuff.**

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**Chapter II: A New Squad Member**

Commander Shepard, Garrus Vakarian, and Tali'Zorah fought their way through the ExoGeni building and soon discovered the one thing that made Feros unique and the only possible thing that Saren could be after: some sort of alien life form called the Thorian. None of them had any idea would Saren would want with this particular life form, but the Commander pointed out that the ExoGeni representative would probably have answers for them now when confronted with the information.

So the ground team made their way back to the base that was being held by the Commander's sister only to walk in on a tense situation.

The ExoGeni rep had his gun pointed at one of the researchers, clearly ready to kill to protect the interests of his company. Athena Shepard had her pistol out, the gun trained on the rep, searching for a shot that would take him down without hurting the hostage. But it was clear from the look in her eyes that she was becoming frustrated and more likely to shoot… hostage be damned.

"Athena… let me handle this." The Commander said, moving slowly to his sister's side. It was hard to miss the look of relief that crossed her face as she backed down and let her brother take the top spot.

"He's got this under control." Garrus assured her. He had first-hand witness to the Commander's charm, and knew that the Commander could talk just about anyone down.

"Oh, I know." Athena Shepard said. "I've once seen him talk pissed off krogan into being friends with him."

"You're lying." Tali gasped.

"Do you want to see the recording?" She asked, grinning. "Seriously, one moment the krogan wanted to tear him a new one, and the next they are sharing drinks at a bar like old war buddies. Wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. So, yeah, I'm not worried at all."

True to Athena's prediction, the ExoGeni rep dropped his weapon after Commander Shepard convinced him that giving information would save the colony, and that would look good for ExoGeni's reputation. So he told the Commander everything he knew about the Thorian, which still was not a lot. The only thing they learned was that the Thorian was a plant-based life form that possessed some form of mind control. But it was the information that came next that really pissed the Commander off.

"You buried it under Zhu's Hope?! Used the colonists as lab rats for the Thorian's mind control?!" He yelled.

The ExoGeni rep took a few steps back. "We needed to understand the extent of the creature's ability."

"Just shut up!" Athena growled angrily. "Do you have any idea would could be happening to the colonists? Just stay here while the Alliance takes care of your mess!" She turned to her brother. "Take me with you, John. Sounds like you need to take out this Thorian creature to put this colony right, and if we attack, all the colonists will likely fight back… and they have weapons."

"What about the researchers here?"

"If I know you at all, then the geth in this building are cleared out." Athena answered. "It'll be safer here for them then back at the colony, and the rest of the security team can at least handle shooting geth in a bottleneck. So let's go clear out the colony."

The Commander sighed. "I don't want to go in, guns blazing. These aren't geth or mercs, but innocent colonists."

"I don't want to, either. But the Thorian has to be taken out." Athena said.

"There… could be a way." One of the researchers said. "While we were studying the Thorian, we discovered that a person controlled by the Thorian has a weakened nervous system. There's chemical agents that we have access to that wouldn't work on the average human, but would certainly paralyze someone under the control of the Thorian."

"And failing that, a good punch would take them down without killing them." Garrus commented.

"You also need to watch out for the Thorian Creepers. They have been completely taken over to the point that there is no humanity left… like the husks. Putting them out of their misery would be a service." The researcher said.

"Very well." Commander Shepard said. "Lethal fire is allowed for the Thorian Creepers. For the brain-washed colonists, my grenades and melee only. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Commander." Garrus and Tali replied instantly.

"What about me?" Athena asked.

"I don't know. Can you stow your rifle on the colonists?" The Commander asked.

She scoffed. "I know how to follow orders, John. Don't worry about me. I'm sure there will be plenty of Creepers to shoot."

"Very well, Athena, you're with me. Now let's get back to Zhu's Hope."

* * *

The drive back to Zhu's Hope and the subsequent fight through the colony was hair-raising. The entire fight was made more complicated when all predictions turned out to be right: once it knew it was under attack, the Thorian mobilized the colonists against the Commander and his team. Athena, Garrus, and Tali concentrated their fire on the Creepers, as there were many of them, while the Commander focused on disabling the colonists.

Soon all the Creepers were gunned down and all the colonists were either paralyzed or knocked out. Garrus could tell through the readings on his visor that all the colonists were alive.

"That's the last of them." He reported to the Commander.

"Good work, team." The Commander replied, jogging over to a control panel and pressing a few of the holographic buttons. "There are passageways below the colony, and there's an entrance nearby. Just give me a few more moments and… there." One of the pre-fab buildings lifted up, revealing a tunnel under the colony. "Ready?" He asked.

"I'm right behind you, Commander." Garrus responded.

"All the colonists are accounted for up here. So your orders are to shoot anything that moves." The Commander said.

"My kind of orders, brother." Athena said with a smirk.

The Commander gave her a little nudge before they headed down into the darkness of the tunnels, which were infested with the Thorian Creepers. These were gunned down without mercy. The tunnel was not very long before they came out in a large underground chamber. Dominating the center of the chamber was a huge, plant-like creature unlike any that they had ever seen before.

"That doesn't look like any plant I've ever seen. This could be… problematic." Commander Shepard said.

"I don't think so, Commander." Garrus said, taking his eyes off the creature and examining the room with his visor. "Those tentacles attached to the wall… those are neural nodes and a weak point. If we destroy those, it will cause the Thorian a great amount of pain and should cause it to fall."

"Good."

Before they could move, the Thorian began to convulse. Athena jumped back as a fowl liquid spewed from the 'mouth', if plants even had mouths. Then, from behind the tentacles, a strange asari stepped forward. She was not like most of the asari that they had seen. Instead of blue skin, her skin was a bright, poisonous green.

Speaking with her, it soon became clear that she was just a tool, a means for the Thorian to communicate and little else. The Thorian had made a deal with Saren for some knowledge that the Thorian possessed, and then stabbed it in the back once the Thorian gave up that knowledge. The Thorian was not pleased and was not looking to make any more deals with anyone.

The fight that followed was a difficult one: wave after wave of Thorian Creepers and more regurgitated asari attacked them in an effort to stop them from attacking the Thorian's weak spots. But it was not nearly as difficult as the fight above had been. There were no innocents in here, and they were able to gun down everything with zeal.

Garrus relished in this. He'd had no trouble carefully sniping the Thorian Creepers above, but this sort of endless waves of bad guys was thrilling. The Commander was the sort who wanted to save everyone, but he also knew how to put down the bad guys hard.

What really interested him in this fight was how Athena Shepard handled herself. Her sniper rifle was put away, pretty much useless with the endless waves of enemies that operated in short range, but she was proving herself just as effective with a sub-machine gun. There was obviously no lack of military talent within the Shepard family.

Once the final node gave away and the Thorian fell into the pit below it, a final asari appeared. Garrus was about to shoot it when he realized that it was not like the others. She was blue like the average asari, and her speech patterns were different from the Thorian-controlled asari.

The Commander knew that something was different about her, so he approached her to see if she would talk. And talk she did.

It turned out that she was a former follower of Matriarch Benezia, who was working with Saren to find the Conduit. She had been offered in trade to the Thorian in return for its knowledge of the Protheans. The Thorian had been alive before the Protheans colonized Feros and had watched and studied them. When they died, it consumed their bodies and gained the understanding of their race that would allow one to decode the message of the beacons.

She also offered to give the Commander the Prothean Cipher so that he could understand the vision from the beacon. But the only way it could be transferred was by an asari mind-meld. The Commander readily agreed.

Garrus felt just a little dirty watching, and he glanced away as the asari told the Commander to embrace eternity. It was well known that this was how the asari reproduced. Of course, asari were capable of the sort of physical coitus that just about every other species experienced for reproduction, but this was their sex equivalent.

Turians were probably the most laid back species when it comes to sex after the asari, but that didn't mean that he was entirely comfortable watching.

Less than a minute later, it ended. The Commander pulled away with a gasp, his hands flying up to his head. Athena jumped forward and supported him under the arm, glaring at the asari. "What the hell did you do to him?" She demanded.

"I gave him the cultural memories of an entire people. It will take some time for the memories to sort themselves and for the vision to become clear."

"I… I'm fine." The Commander assured his sister, standing up straight. "The vision is clearer now, but there's still no information one where the Conduit is."

"Dammit." Garrus swore.

"Look on the bright side…" Tali began. "This means that Saren doesn't have the location for the Conduit yet, either."

"Unless he has a piece of the puzzle that we are still missing." The Commander said. He turned his gaze back to the asari. "Now that you are free from the Thorian, what do you plan to do?"

"The colonists have suffered a great deal, and I fear that I am responsible for many of their pains. If it is okay with you, I'd like to stay here and help them rebuild."

"I'm sure they would appreciate all the help they can get."

"John, are you sure that we should just let her go?" Athena asked. "She could still be controlled by the Thorian…"

"The Thorian is dead. I doubt that even it could still control people posthumously."

She nodded. "Very well. This is your party, after all, John."

"You know, I could use all the help I can get against Saren and the geth." The Commander said, giving his sister a sideways glance. "I'm sure that I could get the Alliance to approve a transfer order."

"Bro… you'd have to tie me up to keep me from joining you on the _Normandy_." Athena smirked.

Garrus and Tali glanced at each other in shock. _Two Shepards?_ There was no way this would go over well.

* * *

**LES: Next, going to pick up Liara! Well, I'm not that excited about it. To tell the truth, she's my least favorite squad member in the first game… and the third game.**


End file.
